Review of the EU Missions (for European Commission – DG R&I)

The Directorate-General for Research and Innovation (DG R&I) of the European Commission has commissioned a study supporting an assessment of the EU Missions, the review of mission areas and the analysis of the missions’ portfolio of instruments and actions. The study is coordinated by EFIS Centre in co-operation with MIPO (University of Utrecht), KMU Forschung Austria, Visionary Analytics and Claire Nauwelaers.

The five EU Missions covered by this assignment are: Adaptation to Climate Change; Cancer; Restore our Ocean and Waters by 2030; 100 Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities by 2030; A Soil Deal for Europe.

The study will collect and analyse views, data and evidence on the EU Missions’ selection process, their governance, budget, instruments and methods to catalyse relevant private and public sector activities, focus and progress to date. It will also review the current and future policy relevance of the five selected mission areas. The study will identify what worked well and less well, lessons learned and suggestions for improvement for the short and longer- term of EU Missions’ implementation.

MIPO contributes by providing conceptual and methodological advice and by conducting the review of one of the five mission areas and corresponding mission.

 

Contributions to ‘Partnerships for Regional Innovation’ (for European Commission – Joint Research Centre)

The Partnerships for Regional Innovation (PRI) are a new approach to place-based innovation policy which builds on positive experiences with smart specialisation strategies. The new approach aims to orient smart specialisation towards addressing societal challenges. One of the central pillars concerns ‘Open Discovery Processes and Local Missions’.

MIPO contributes by participating in the expert panel that supports PRI activities and analyses.

 

Contributions to report on ‘Evaluating systemic and transformative innovation policy’ (for Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy)

Missions, as coordination devices or a ‘supra-layer’ for aligning diverse policy instruments, are an example of innovation policy relying on system change for achieving societal goals (beyond merely enhanced competitiveness and economic growth). How to evaluate such innovation policies is an important but challenging question. At the request of the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy, an expert panel led by prof. Bas ter Weel has developed a report that describes the difficulties as well as possibilities for evaluating systemic and transformative innovation policies. The report, which can be found here (in Dutch), discusses relevant evaluation perspectives, frameworks and methodologies. It serves as the baseline future evaluation requests can refer to when asking for proposals.

MIPO contributed by delivering one of the main authors of the report. The report heavily builds on a framework presented in the following publication:

• Janssen, M. J., Bergek, A., & Wesseling, J. H. (2022). Evaluating systemic innovation and transition programmes: Towards a culture of learning. PLoS sustainability and transformation, 1(3), e0000008.